Twenty countries participated, the highest number of competing countries in the history of the competition at the time. Denmark and Turkey both returned to the contest. Denmark had not participated since 1966, 12 years before.
The winner of the contest was Israel with the song "A-Ba-Ni-Bi" by Izhar Cohen and the Alphabeta. The winning entry was a love song sung in the Hebrew equivalent of Ubbi dubbi (the title is an expansion of the Hebrew word ani, meaning "I"). This was Israel's first Eurovision win, and it was also the first winning song to be performed in one of the Semitic languages. Furthermore, it was also the only winning song to be conducted by a woman, Nurit Hirsh. Norway finished last for the fifth time, gaining the first nul points after the new voting system was implemented in 1975.
Location
Palais des Congrès, Paris – host venue of the 1978 contest.
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Eurovision Song Contest 1978–Participation summaries by country
Denmark returned to the competition after having been absent for twelve years, while Turkey did so after missing out two years.[2] This meant that, for the first time, the contest had twenty entries competing.
The postcards were filmed live, featuring the artists making their way to the stage. They took a corridor, then an elevator. Leaving the lift, they were greeted by the previous participants and then made their entrances to the stage. The camera also made several shots of the audience, notably Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg.
Each song was accompanied by a 45-piece orchestra.[1]
The Swedish participant Björn Skifs was unhappy with the rule that every country would have to perform in their native language. He planned to sing in English anyway, but changed his mind at the last moment, causing him to completely forget the lyrics. He therefore sang the first few lines in gibberish before finding the words again.
The Israeli win caused problems for several North African and Middle-Eastern nations that were televising the contest, even though they were not participating. According to author and political commentator John Kennedy O'Connor in his book The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official History, when Israel became the clear winners during the voting, most of the Arabic stations ended their transmission of the contest. Jordan Television finished the show with a photo of a bunch of daffodils on screen, later announcing that the Belgian entry (which finished second) was the winner.[5]
Contest overview
The contest was held on 22 April 1978, beginning at 21:30 (CEST).[6]
Fears of terrorist attacks like at the Summer Olympics 1972 in Munich and of stage invasions like in 1964 meant that security measures in and around the Palais des Congrès were particularly tight: 200 police officers, some of them as undercover agents, tried to prevent any potential incidents. Spectators had to go through metal detectors upon arrival at the Palais des Congrès.[6]
In addition to his duties as a host together with Denise Fabre, Léon Zitrone also served as commentator for France, in an own commentary box backstage.[6]
Each participating broadcaster appointed a spokesperson who was responsible for announcing the votes for its respective country via telephone. Known spokespersons at the 1978 contest are listed below.
Each participating broadcaster was required to relay the contest via its networks. Non-participating EBU member broadcasters were also able to relay the contest as "passive participants". Broadcasters were able to send commentators to provide coverage of the contest in their own native language and to relay information about the artists and songs to their television viewers.[14] TF1 provided 29 commentary boxes in the auditorium for foreign broadcasters.[6]
In addition to the participating countries, the contest was also reportedly broadcast in 17 other countries, including Algeria, Iceland, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, and Yugoslavia; in Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and the Soviet Union via Intervision; and in Hong Kong, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates.[1][4][6] No official accounts of the viewing figures are known to exist; an estimate given in French press outlets ahead of the contest put the expected audience at around 350 million viewers worldwide, while media reports put viewing figures between 500 to 600 million.[6][15][16]
Known details on the broadcasts in each country, including the specific broadcasting stations and commentators are shown in the tables below.
Broadcasters and commentators in participating countries
↑ Delayed broadcast on 29 April at 23:45 (EET)'"`UNIQ--ref-000000E4-QINU`"'
↑ Deferred broadcast the following day at 10:30 (HKT)'"`UNIQ--ref-000000EA-QINU`"'
↑ Deferred broadcast the following day at 19:00 (HKT)'"`UNIQ--ref-000000EE-QINU`"'
↑ Delayed broadcast on 23 May 1978 at 21:40 (CET)'"`UNIQ--ref-000000F0-QINU`"'
↑ Delayed broadcast on 30 April 1978 at 21:20 (WET)'"`UNIQ--ref-000000F4-QINU`"'
↑ Contest broadcast interrupted during the voting sequence by the broadcaster'"`UNIQ--ref-000000F8-QINU`"'
↑ Delayed broadcast on 6 May 1978 at 22:30 (ADT)'"`UNIQ--ref-000000FC-QINU`"'
↑ Deferred broadcast in a shortened format at 00:50 (CET)'"`UNIQ--ref-00000100-QINU`"'
↑ Deferred broadcast the following day at 15:30 (CET)'"`UNIQ--ref-00000108-QINU`"'
References
1 2 3 Chaillet, Cathérine (4 April 1978). "Concours Eurovision de la chanson" (Press release) (in French). Paris, France: TF1. TF1 Service de presse. pp.1–4. OCLC965372158.
1 2 3 Roxburgh, Gordon (2014). Songs for Europe: The United Kingdom at the Eurovision Song Contest. Volume Two: The 1970s. Prestatyn: Telos Publishing. pp.312–327. ISBN978-1-84583-093-9.
↑ O'Connor, John Kennedy. The Eurovision Song Contest – The Official History. Carlton Books, UK. 2007 ISBN978-1-84442-994-3
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Didi, Franklin (22 April 1978). "350 millions de téléspectateurs et 200 policiers". Télé 7 Jours (in French). No.934. pp.28–29.
↑ Thorsson, Leif; Verhage, Martin (2006). Melodifestivalen genom tiderna: de svenska uttagningarna och internationella finalerna[Melodifestivalen through the ages: the Swedish selections and international finals] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Premium Publishing. pp.132–133. ISBN91-89136-29-2.
1 2 "T.V. Programma's"[T.V. Programmes]. De Voorpost (in Dutch). Aalst, Belgium. 21 April 1978. pp.30–31. Retrieved 10 January 2023– via Stadsarchief Aalst.
↑ "Een avondje thuis nietsnutten: Zoutloos songfestival"[An evening at home doing nothing: Saltless song festival]. De Voorpost (in Dutch). Aalst, Belgium. 28 April 1978. p.32. Retrieved 26 December 2024– via Stadsarchief Aalst.
↑ "sabato 22 aprile"[Saturday 22 April]. Radiocorriere TV (in Italian). Vol.55, no.16. Turin, Italy. 16–22 April 1978. pp.202–203. Retrieved 26 June 2023– via Rai Teche.
↑ "Les écrans francophones – Samedi 22 avril"[French-speaking screens – Saturday 22 April]. Le Monde. Paris, France. 16–17 April 1978. p.14. Retrieved 22 July 2024– via Internet Archive.
↑ "Radio – samedi 22 avril"[Radio – Saturday 22 April]. Radio TV – Je vois tout (in French). Vol.56, no.16. Lausanne, Switzerland. 20 April 1978. p.68. Retrieved 10 January 2023– via Scriptorium.
↑ "TV". Cumhuriyet (in Turkish). Istanbul, Turkey. 22 April 1978. p.9. Archived from the original on 10 January 2023. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
↑ "Kedd – május 23"[Tuesday – 23 May]. Rádió– és Televízióújság (in Hungarian). Vol.23, no.21. Budapest, Hungary. 22 May 1978. pp.12–13. Retrieved 10 January 2023– via Nemzeti Archívum.
↑ "Jutri na RTV"[Tomorrow on RTV]. Delo (in Slovenian). Ljubljana, Yugoslavia. 22 April 1978. p.8. Retrieved 28 October 2024– via Digital Library of Slovenia.
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